1-on-1 with Ed Christian

Sunday

Jul 29, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Editor's note: This is the first of a weekly feature in which we will call on area coaches, athletes, administrators and other members of the community and ask them non-typical questions (some easy, some not-so easy). The format is strictly question and answer.

MIKE KUHNS

Editor's note: This is the first of a weekly feature in which we will call on area coaches, athletes, administrators and other members of the community and ask them non-typical questions (some easy, some not-so easy). The format is strictly question and answer.

Ed Christian will begin his 27th year this fall as head football coach at East Stroudsburg South. The Cavaliers won the Mountain Valley Conference in 2006 with a 6-0 record, but fell to Parkland in the opening round of the District 11 Class AAAA playoffs.

EC: Oh God, yeah. Probably more-so now. It's just fun to work with kids and to see them get better. That hasn't changed at all in my life. You say 27 years and you think, you blink your eye and all the sudden you're at that point in time and you wonder where the heck the years went.

EC: Tremendous. Whenever you get a person on the staff that has the expertise that he has involving just quarterbacks in general and/or the offense, specifically the passing game, you just got to be better. What he brings to the table, not only with game stuff, but he does so much off the field stuff such as speed training, weight room situations. He will be a very, very, very good addition to our staff.

EC: Oh, boy. The best player I ever coached. I don't know really if I could sit down and give you a bonafide answer on who the best player was.

You got people, obviously Jimmy Mungro reached the NFL. We never had an individual reach the NFL. On the other hand you have a kid by the name of Jimmy Terwilliger who set, I believe, it was 15 East Stroudsburg University records and 12 NCAA records, won the Harlon Hill, was the best player in the Division II. I don't know.

I'm probably giving you a carte blanche, sort of a coach's answer here. We haven't retired any jerseys at East Stroudsburg. One of the reasons we don't is, if I take Jimmy Terwilliger's number or if I take Jimmy Mungro's number and retire it, that means No. 13, there are other people who wore No. 13 and there are other people who wore No. 23, that gave their body and soul to the program. We don't retire people's number because of that.

EC: I did not have a heart attack. I have a couple stents in the arteries. I'm fine, no problems and thank Godness I flunked the stress test because they found it.

EC: It just means that we have had kids buy into what we were trying to do. And not everybody bought into it at the beginning. But as the years went on we have more and more and more people buying into what we're doing and we've been kind of successful. I think over the course of years, if you stay long enough and you're successful enough, then people get to see that and something great happens like going into the Hall of Fame.

EC: There was, at one point in time a number of years ago, plans to upgrade the stadium and the track and the lighting and the storage areas, and that seems to be put on hold. The time where a lot of decisions had to be made one way or another, the stadium was put on hold.

But I think down the road, that's something that will happen. Hopefully, from my perspective, I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

EC: I think, first of all, if you're going to be successful it has to start with defense. Probably you have to stop the run. That's probably first and foremost. Secondly would be pass defense. Nowadays since they're throwing the ball all over the place, if they're successful, that's what they'll continue to do.

I'd put run offense third, pass offense fourth, not necessarily third and fourth — you have to have people to execute what you want them to do. It depends on who you have.

And of course the last thing is the special teams, but on the other hand maybe special teams could come first. You talk about the biggest plays in football that could absolutely kill you — kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return — we pride ourselves and try to get our best people on special teams.

EC: Probably the 1981 team. I think that was the team with the Epplys, with Porter, with Putek. That was a close-knit team. They had a collective unity. They were just tight.

EC: I'm for it. I'm for it. It seems to be one of the real big problem areas with young adults.

EC: I don't think that loss in particular has motivated the team. The fact that we've been successful in the league, but we haven't been successful outside of the league. I want to get to the next step. The kids talk about it, and they know they can play with people, but we haven't taken the next step yet. That's the big emphasis in the whole program, that we take the next step to do whatever we have to do to get into that state tournament.

MK: James Mungro.EC: Durable

MK: Tony Rose.EC: Loyal. Committed. Dedicated.

MK: Fred RossEC: Tough competitor. Very successful. A winner.

MK: Purple PitEC: Tough place to play.

MK: ThanksgivingEC: (Laughing) That's the hardest question of all.

I think it was a traditional game. I think in the situation we're in now where we play them twice and we could play Stroudsburg three times. I think it takes the edge off of Thanksgiving Day.